Friday, January 11, 2013

Hey, look--THREE posts within 2 weeks! So far, so good on that New Year's Resolution... :-)

This was done as a bit of a joke for a pal at work who wanted me to do something with Lobo a few months ago. I told him I wouldn't be able to get to it until after Christmas, so here it is...

And, for those interested, here's the process...

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STEP ONE: Here's the sketch I did for layout. It's about 2" x 3" on the back of a scrap piece of paper on pencil. As is typical, I think I like the quick, warm-up sketch better than the finished painting. Sigh...

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STEP TWO: I penciled it out on a 9" x 12" piece of gessoed matboard.

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STEP THREE: Here I am starting to paint the figure, modelling the form and such and working on the undertones.

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STEP FOUR: Here's the painting a bit further along...

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STEP FIVE: Almost done...

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STEP SIX: Here's the finished painting. Now that I look at it, there are a few things here and there I would like to fix with the painting--the face got a little wide while I was painting over it; the anatomy of the arm is a bit mushy; while trying to exaggerate the anatomy ala Simon Bisley, the muscles of the arm are too separated from each other--they look like they are just stacked on top of each other, rather than an integrated arm... Some other things here and there. But, I suppose I could easily spend another day or two just noodling around with the paints and still not quite have it done to my satisfaction. Ah, well. Good enough for Todd! (And, yes, Todd, that was an insult!) :-P

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Well, I'm a little late with this specific New Year's Day themed cover, but I still wanted to finish it up and post it. For some reason, the New Year's Jim Steranko Hulk I posted last year seemed mildly popular, so I thought I'd continue with this one, as well. Maybe I should have the Hulk ring in the New Year EVERY year? :-)

I currently have a lot of irons in the fire, but I am hoping to post a little more often than last year (I averaged about one post ever week-and-a-half). I hope everyone has a fantastic New Year!

Here's the cover I based this on, The Incredible Hulk #135 by Herb Timpe. I always liked this cover and really wanted to re-do this for the late, great Covered Blog but, alas, I guess it wasn't meant to be. So, I just did it as a more "cartoony" post for here.

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Here is the original inked page after I cleaned it up a little bit in PhotoShop. It was done with a brush pen on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock--nothing too fancy. I then imported it into PhotoShop and created a MULTIPLY Layer to colorize the drawing. I also did the lettering in PhotoShop, too.

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This was done with ink and brush on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock and then digitally colored in PhotoShop.

The portrayal of Evolutionary Theory in comics (well, almost all of pop culture, really) is generally painful in its ignorance, but there is still something about the High Evolutionary that appeals to me. I thought the character had a cool look, and he tinkered with genetics, creating a Dr. Moreau type menagerie of half-human/half-animal hybrids. And, once again, it was the power of Jack Kirby's design and artwork that really made the High Evolutionary so compelling to me when I first read about him in a back issue or Thor.

Also, I like science a lot and always had an interest in Evolutionary Theory. Back in the day, I used to spend hours upon hours debating with Creationists on various bulletin boards under the name "John Boy" (you can still probably find some of my posts, I'm sure). About the only good thing about it was it forced me to learn about Evolutionary Theory more fully and shed my own pop-cultural-based ignorance about it.

Below, how the process (ahem) evolved... for the High Evolutionary submission.

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STEP ONE: I did a very quick digital sketch in PhotoShop, laying out the pose and the beginning of the lighting for the High Evolutionary.

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STEP TWO: Over top of the sketch, I used a chalk brush in PhotoShop to begin modeling the figure in black-and-white, to establish the form and work on getting the lighting correct.

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STEP THREE: Here's the finished black-and-white drawing. I changed the position of his right hand a little bit and exaggerated the pose a bit more. The High Evolutionary also turned out a bit more muscular than I intended, now that I look at it.

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STEP FOUR: I created a MULTIPLY LAYER and colored over top the black-and-white drawing.